Since 1999, Australia has swung between drought and deluge with surprising speed, because El Niño has fallen into sync with similar patterns in the Indian and Southern Oceans.

The site of the hillfort of Vugala, northern Viti Levu island (Fiji). This was one of many hillforts in the area – home to a few hundred people according to reports from the 1840s – that were probably established around AD 1400 in response to conflict resulting from a food crisis that had come about as a result of an enduring fall in sea level.
Patrick Nunn
Maret 15, 2016

El Niño has a hugely pervasive effect on global temperatures - for every degree the tropical Pacific warms, land temperatures warm by 1.5 degrees. How? Because the tropical ocean is a very good heater.

More frequent disasters – such as Cyclone Pam which struck Vanuatu this year – will leave Pacific islands struggling to recover.
Edgar Su/Reuters
September 8, 2015